After a boy is killed while attempting an escape from the Garfield State School, Robert Dean, assistant warden of the state penitentiary, is appointed superintendent of the reformatory. Some moves he makes to lessen that harsh conditions immediately wins him the friendship of the kindly resident physician, Dr. Hector Blakely and the school psychiatrist, Dr. Adele Webster. A riot wrecks the mess hall, and Dean, learning of the bad food served the boys, orders enough flapjacks made to fill their empty stomachs. He them makes the crooked food contractors eat their own wares. Dean then dismisses all of the guards after he discovers their chief, Mac Grady, forcing little Fibber Regan to eat soap as a cure for lying. The boys are told they can manage themselves and Dean places them on their honor not to escape. Grady, who wants Dean's job, alters commitment papers and sends incorrigible Louie Miller to Garfield, and orders him to make trouble.